Planned rail strike put on hold by union members

A planned strike by Network Rail union members has been put on hold after they received a new offer in the continued dispute over pay, job security and working conditions.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), Unite and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), had planned industrial action from 5pm on Monday, May 25.

Southern Rail had said if the strike went ahead, there would be a limited service on Bank Holiday Monday, no service at all on Tuesday (May 26) and severe disruption on Wednesday morning (May 27).

However, the unions have suspended strike plans this afternoon (Thursday, May 21) after receiving a new offer from Network Rail.

Officials from both unions have spent the last four days in talks with Network Rail at the conciliation service Acas.

The unions previously rejected Network Rail’s pay proposals put on the table in April, which it claimed were ‘well short’ in terms of maintaining the living standards, job security and working conditions.

Union members have so far rejected a four-year deal worth £500 this year followed by three years of increases matching RPI inflation. Network Rail’s offer also pledged no compulsory redundancies before December 2016.